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135. You Can Still Show Up · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hey, team, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here.
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  Happy Labor Day, end of summer, start of September.
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  Summer flew by. I'm so excited for this next
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  fall season. I love the fall.
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  Hope that you had a good end to your summer.
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  In this episode today we are going to talk about what I think
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  is one of the most underrated skills in life.
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  That is the skill of performing well when you don't feel your
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  best. And I think about this skill a
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  lot. I look for it and people that I
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  will work with. I look for it in clients and
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  people that I'm become friends with.
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  I just think it's an incredibly valuable skill to have and it
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  makes me think a lot about when I used to teach spin.
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  We would teach 6 to 10 classes a week, sometimes in certain
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  seasons, and you had to be able to show up very well for every
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  class. That was your job.
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  And as expected, life didn't always cooperate with us to
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  allow us to feel our very best every single day that we had to
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  teach a class. But you know, guess what?
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  It's our job to show up and teach a damn good class.
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  And so that's what we did. We had to learn the skill of
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  showing up and performing well, even when we don't feel our
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  best. And I always admire the people
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  who could show up and just do an incredible job, even knowing
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  what that person was going through in their life, whether
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  it be an an injury or an illness or just something hard that they
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  were going through. Personally, it's one of the
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  things that attracted me to my wife actually, because she just
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  has this crazy ability to show up and deliver, to perform, to
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  just turn it on no matter what's going on in her life.
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  I've seen her do it in some crazy circumstances.
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  And I just, I love that about people and I love that about
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  her. I deeply admire this skill.
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  And I think that I admire that skill so much because this is
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  what life is. It's a roller coaster full of
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  ups and downs. There are some days where we are
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  going to feel tired. There's some days where we
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  aren't going to be in the best headspaces or in the best moods.
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  Some days we're dealing with incredibly difficult
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  circumstances. Things come out of the blue.
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  They just happen. And it's the way that it goes.
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  You know, there's a famous story about Michael Jordan that most
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  every sports fan has heard before.
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  It's highlighted in that docu series called The Last Dance on
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  ESPN about Michael Jordan. And it's the story of his
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  incredible performance in, I think it was Game 5, the 1997
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  NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.
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  And Michael Jordan was very obviously sick in this game.
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  Everyone refers to it as a stomach flu game, but apparently
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  the true story is that he ate a delivery pizza that gave him
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  food poisoning. And so the story is that Jordan
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  shows up to the game, he's super sick, and he still ends up
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  scoring 38 points. He hits the tie breaking 3
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  pointer with 25 seconds left, and the Chicago Bulls end up
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  winning the game and taking the lead in the finals series over
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  the Utah Jazz. And it's such a famous story
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  because of how he was facing these very sub optimal
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  circumstances and still showing up to play in this exceptional,
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  outrageous way and leading his team to victory.
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  Now, obviously, Michael Jordan is the exception to so many
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  roles. He's a superhuman athlete, one
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  of the best to ever play the game.
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  But the lesson that I take away from this every time I hear the
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  story, it's really about how we as humans have the ability to
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  show up even when we feel like crap or have to perform with
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  suboptimal conditions and really excel and do a great job.
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  You know, sometimes we get in the habit of feeling like we
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  have to have the perfect circumstances to be able to
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  perform well and do a great job. We slip into this trap of
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  feeling like we have to have the right kind of energy or the
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  perfect mindset or the exact preparation, or have all of
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  these circumstances perfectly suited to us in our environment.
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  And if those things aren't in place, it's not possible for us
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  to do a good job or deliver the way we want or the way we're
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  supposed to. Essentially, if we don't feel
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  great, we don't have to show up. And the reality is we have the
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  ability to show up and deliver well and perform well even when
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  things aren't totally lined up or perfectly suited to our
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  liking. There's a little bit of a
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  sentiment in culture right now where people think that they
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  can't do their stuff, they can't go to work, they can't do their
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  job if everything's not lined up.
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  If they're having an off day, then they'll take the day off.
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  If they're not feeling great energy or great emotionally,
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  then they're not going to show up and do the work.
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  And not everyone likes when I talk about this.
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  And I'm over generalizing a little.
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  What I'm not saying is you need to suppress or ignore your
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  emotions. I'm not saying that you have to
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  pretend like everything is perfect.
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  Clearly you have to take care of yourself.
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  If you can do something to feel better, absolutely do it.
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  But as a society, the pendulum is swung so far in the other
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  direction and I think we need to acknowledge that we are tougher
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  than we think. We are capable of more than we
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  think, and every small affront doesn't have to be a reason for
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  us not to show up and do our best.
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  I know we all battle with this a little bit in our own lives.
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  Every day I battle with this. I've caught myself having more
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  internal dialogue about the way that my days are going with my
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  workouts, with my work at home. I've noticed that I've been
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  getting frustrated with with the way that I feel.
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  I'm catching myself considering skipping my workout altogether
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  because I'm not feeling my best energy.
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  You know, I'm truthfully not able to lift the amount of
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  weight that I used to be able to lift.
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  I can't run or do the sprints that I used to be able to do
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  even a couple of months ago. There's days recently where I
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  don't feel that good. I don't feel that strong.
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  And I've caught myself having little internal conversations
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  about why I can't show up that day and do the movement.
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  They're subtle, they're a little bit sneaky, but I catch myself
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  doing this and I've had to have some level setting conversations
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  with myself and they go something like this.
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  Steph, you don't feel your best. You're not at your strongest,
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  and you're not able to do as much as you used to do.
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  But you don't have to be in the perfect circumstances to be able
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  to go move your body. Just put your damn shoes on and
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  show up and do what you can do that day.
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  And you know what happens? Most times I do a pretty OK job.
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  I typically end up doing a better job than I thought I
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  would be capable of doing and I always, always end up feeling
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  better than I did before. You know, the same thing is
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  happening with work. We often say to ourselves, oh,
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  well, I don't have an hour like I thought I would have.
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  So I'm just going to brush off this project that I was supposed
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  to be working on today 'cause I I really only have 20 minutes
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  and I don't necessarily have the perfect setup.
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  It's kind of loud in here. I don't have my candle burning
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  or my binaural beats playing in the background.
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  So it's just too hard to think. I can't focus and I'm probably
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  not going to get that much done anyway.
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  So I'll just put it off till tomorrow.
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  That is a habit that we get into, and it's a very slippery
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  slope because tomorrow turns into next week, which turns into
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  next month, and then we can't figure out why we're not
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  accomplishing what we want to accomplish or experiencing life
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  the way we want to experience it.
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  I often say to clients, action beats anxiety because the mere
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  act of getting into motion will often dispel these feelings of
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  worry and stress and anxiety about a situation.
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  And I find the same is true for this discussion.
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  You don't have to feel perfect. You can still feel off, but
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  still show up and perform well because it's the act of getting
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  started that so often shifts the way that we feel.
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  We don't need optimal circumstances to be able to show
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  up. Sometimes even a little bit is
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  better than nothing in terms of what we produce or how we
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  perform. And sometimes we just have to
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  suck it up and put on our grown up pants and do the damn thing.
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  And I say that with love and compassion because I know that
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  we are all contending with a lot in our lives, but there's a
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  level of performance or professionalism or integrity
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  that we can bring to the table in our lives every single day.
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  And I think this dramatically improves our ability to have
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  powerful impact in our world. The reason this is so important
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  is because it requires an ability to stay calm amongst the
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  challenge. It requires that we think
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  clearly and that we demonstrate grit when we face stress or
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  hardship. And these skills are key to what
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  we call self efficacy. Self efficacy is the belief we
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  have in our ability to succeed in specific situations or when
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  we're trying to accomplish tasks.
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  It influences how we approach goals to do's, challenges,
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  etcetera. Self efficacy effects whether
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  people will even attempt to cope with a situation.
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  They might tend to avoid perceived threats that exceed
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  their coping skills. And then, on the flip side, they
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  might engage more confidently in situations that they feel more
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  capable of handling. People with strong self efficacy
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  tend to embrace difficult tasks. They think about them as
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  learning opportunities. They'll recover from setbacks
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  more quickly. They attribute failure to poor
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  strategy, like things they can change, things they can get
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  better AT, and they generally have lower stress and are less
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  likely to feel feelings of depression.
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  People with low self efficacy tend to avoid challenging tasks
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  or they give up easily. They focus on weaknesses and all
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  the negative stuff, all the negative outcomes.
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  They believe that failures are due to their lack of ability,
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  which is considered to be a fixed trait, not something that
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  they could change or improve. And those people experience
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  higher levels of stress and they're much more vulnerable to
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  depression. So when we think about this idea
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  of self efficacy, it very much benefits us as a team, as a
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  family, a community, a society, to be a human with a high level
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  of self efficacy. It's our ability to work through
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  the hard shit. So one of the best things we can
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  do for ourselves and for everyone around us is to show up
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  and perform well even when we don't feel our best, to build
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  that skill, to put in those reps.
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  It also helps us break free from this idea that we have to have
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  the perfect conditions to be successful because it's not
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  true. It's just it's erroneous
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  thinking. And when we do deliver, even
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  when we're not feeling great and we display the self efficacy, it
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  shows us that we can take radical ownership of our
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  circumstances and be in choice about how we show up every
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  single time. It gives us the ability to look
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  back and see the evidence that, yeah, we are tough, we're
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  resilient, we are buoyant. As humans, we don't have to
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  complain about all the things that are suboptimal in our life.
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  We don't have to begrudge all the circumstances that aren't
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  going our way. We don't have to inform everyone
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  and give disclaimers that we're contending with some deficits
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  that aren't our fault and that we didn't ask for, and that's
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  why we're not at our best. You don't have to do that.
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  You just show up. You put your energy and your
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  intention into what you're doing and you own it.
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  There's so many times when you just have to get the job done,
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  and it's totally possible for you to do that and to crush it,
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  even when things aren't perfect. When I think about this, I can
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  recognize that at the end of the day, it's easy to do awesome
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  work and perform well when things are going great and
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  everything is lined up. We can all acknowledge that.
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  But true excellence and just a tremendous amount of impact, it
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  happens when you can deliver even when things aren't lined up
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  perfectly, even when you are not feeling your best or you're
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  feeling off. And that's the skill.
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  That's the major skill in life that I think we could practice
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  more. The people who are great at what
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  they do and have the impact the way that they have it, it's not
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  because they have perfect conditions all the time to do
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  their purposeful work. It's not.
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  They're great because they show up and they do their best even
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  when they don't have perfect conditions.
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  So my challenge to you this week is to think about where are the
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  areas in your life where you've been phoning in in a little bit
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  and where you might be able to step it up and perform at a
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  higher level. Even when you're not feeling
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  your best. Even without the perfect
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  conditions, even without everything being perfectly
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  aligned, where could you show up and just perform and deliver at
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  your highest level? It is a true pathway to having
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  tremendous impact, making a difference, really influencing
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  people in a positive way, and really serving people in a huge
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  way. That's why I think this
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  conversation is so important. So I hope this helps.
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  I hope this spurs on some insights for you.
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  I hope you have a great first week of September.
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  Thank you for being here and for listening.
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  And as always, thank you for being ready to impact.
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  Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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  I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact and
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  recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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  awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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  If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
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  subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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  Thanks again for being here.